


The Cowardly Lion

by Inkribbon796



Category: Markiplier fandom - Fandom
Genre: Abuse, Derek Derekson is a trash human, M/M, Off-screen Physical Abuse, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Verbal Abuse, fluff at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22977982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: Soulmate AU. Illinois has always believed that since his soul mark is a lion that his partner will be brave, noble, and adventurous. He is . . . mostly. Just not in the ways Illinois thinks his life will go.
Relationships: Dr. Iplier/The Host, Eric Derekson/Illinois
Comments: 8
Kudos: 93





	The Cowardly Lion

**Author's Note:**

> A non-Superhero AU fic. I skipped last week so I have two fic for this week to make up for it.

Being the youngest of sixteen kids in the Derekson household meant a lot of things: Eric wasn’t given a lot of attention, he had to be quick to grab food at the table, and he wasn’t his dad’s favorite. Not by a long shot.

It also meant that whenever someone’s soul mark came in, you were teased relentlessly. Soul marks came in when both you and your soulmate’s personalities were firmly set. Eric’s had finally come in when he was eight. He’d been running on a playground from one of his brothers, and tripped over his own shoelaces. When he looked down at his wrist, there was something coiled around it. It looked like a whip.

His brothers immediately latched onto it, endlessly teasing Eric, even when he got home.

Eric’s mother had been excited for him, while his father had been less so. But then again, Eric’s father was unhappy at anything he’d done. Due to all the teasing, Eric always tried to hide his soul mark, in the sleeves of his old coat or with his own hand.

After the  _ accident _ , it only got worse. Derek had forced his son to wear a wristband to hide it, punishing him if Eric even looked at it. So Eric learned not to look, even when it was sometimes the only thing he wanted to do.

Today Eric was excited to get some fresh air. Their coffee machine had broken down so he was being sent to get his dad some from the coffee shop down the street.

Illinois hated school, hated that he was confined to a small room when all he wanted to do was go out and see the world. Even if college was marginally better than high school had been.

Dreaming about it made it impossible for Illinois to focus. Sometimes he caught himself staring at his soul mark instead of paying attention. Partially because anything was better, and partially because looking at it just made him feel better. On the back of his hand was a fluffy maned lion with a bow on its head. No colors, just his own skin tone.

Unfortunately it didn’t give him too much. His friends and family who looked at his mark said that his soulmate had to be brave and powerful, and Illinois was inclined to agree, sure that like him his soulmate was just as adventurous and was already out there. Having all those fun adventures without him. Illinois imagined a Brazilian pilot, or a deep sea explorer.

His bored mood didn’t get any better. His classes had been boring and he’d had a stressful day getting from class to class. So the grad student was already muttering angrily to himself as he entered his apartment complex, stomping up the stairs, wanting to get his mind clear. But when he got up to his floor, he wasn’t as concentrated as he should have been and Illinois slammed into someone coming out of the elevator with a cup of coffee in their hand.

Illinois cursed, jumping back as the hot coffee the guy was holding smashed into Illinois and spilled hot coffee all over him.

Jumping back, Illinois frantically tried to pull his shirt away from his skin. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”

The guy shrunk back, muttering sorry and other apologizes.

Illinois saw the coffee was also spilled on the guy he’d bumped into and felt a little bad. “You okay?” Illinois grumbled.

At Illinois’s question, the guy looked up at Illinois, and almost by accident, their eyes met. Illinois felt like he’d been jolted with electricity. The other guy whimpered, flinching back, but didn’t look away. Almost immediately Illinois felt his soul mark tingle and ache. Illinois felt the almost too strong urge to reach up and wipe the other guy’s tears away.

“Eric!” A voice called down the hall and  _ “Eric” _ flinched rather violently, clearly trying to get away from both the guy calling him and Illinois. He looked down at the almost empty coffee cup in his hands in almost mindless fear.

Suddenly protective, Illinois cleared his throat, not wanting to grab the guy who was clearly terrified. “Who is that?”

“M-my dad,” Eric stammered. “I have to go.”

“I can talk to him,” Illinois offered, planning on punching the guy that made his soulmate this scared.

That only seemed to terrific Eric even more terrified. “N-No please. I h-ave to go.”

“Eric!” A door down the hall opened, and Eric’s eyes widened, and grabbed the front of Illinois’s shirt to try and hide him in the stairwell. Then he turned around, clutching the almost empty cup to his chest. Eric used his body to completely hide Illinois.

A door slammed open.

“Damn it Eric, it doesn’t take three hours to get a dam cup,” the man snarled.

“S-S-orry Dad,” Eric swallowed through his words. “My l-egs w-er-e act-ing up.”

“Right,” Eric’s dad scoffed. “For three hours?”

Eric was quiet for a couple seconds, “I’m sorry.”

“What happened to my coffee?” Eric’s dad demanded.

“I dropped it,” Eric replied meekly, clearly even from Illinois’s vantagepoint he was holding the cup even closer to himself.

“You what? How?” Eric’s dad shouted.

Eric was quiet for a bit, “I di-didn’t m-ean to.”

“You never mean to!” Eric’s dad shouted back at him.

“Just go inside, you’ve already ruined my day,” Eric’s dad ordered.

Without waiting for Eric to follow him, Eric’s dad grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him back to their apartment, slamming the door shut behind them. Eric glanced back at Illinois while his dad had his back partially turned to them. Illinois took a step to follow them but the door was already closed before he could make the second step, locking Eric in and Illinois out.

For a while Illinois stood outside the door, fist raised to knock. When he’d gained enough of his composure he walked away, needing time to think. Eric wouldn’t just leap out and follow Illinois if his dad was anything to go by.

Looking down at the back of his hand, he studied his soul mark. In that second he was determined to save his little cowardly lion, one way or the other.

Illinois honestly didn’t know what to do, he wanted to cocoon his soulmate in blankets and smother him with love, but short of sounding crazy, or kidnapping him, Illinois didn’t know how to keep him from getting hurt.

There wasn’t much Illinois could do, he was always worried about scaring him away. Eric was more than willing to talk to him on the off-chance they met in the hallway. At first Eric was nervous and shy, darting back into his apartment the first chance he got, but that was changing. Slowly as the weeks went by he lingered just a little bit longer.

He was getting braver, or at least more trusting of Illinois. He was rubbing at his wrist a lot when he was looking at Illinois. It made him wonder why Eric had a band covering his wrist, curious at what his soul mark looked like and why he had it covered. Illinois’s lion was for Eric, but what did Eric have under there?

The guy wouldn’t let Illinois rescue him from his shithole dad, so Illinois would have to be patient. Illinois could be more than patient, Eric was worth it. He was worth the whole universe. So, everyday after his classes, Illinois would wait for his soulmate, offering him and smile and trying to be nice. If there was one thing Eric was overdue it was obviously someone being nice to him.

There were already things that Illinois was learning, Eric had fifteen older brothers that were all dead now, along with Eric’s mother. Something Eric blamed himself for. He’d lost his legs in the accident, both of them had been replaced by prosthetics. His P.O.S dad’s name was Derek. Eric loved animals but could never be around them for his  _ “bad luck” _ . Finally: Eric blushed in such a cute way it stole Illinois’s heart every time he saw it.

Eric was nervous at first, trying to hide Illinois every time his dad was nearby. It took Illinois several weeks to go from the feeling of frustration that Eric didn’t want him around; to a slow realization: Eric was trying to keep his dad from turning his anger on Illinois. He was covering for him.

A thought which Illinois thought was as endearing, as it was heartbreaking. Because he was suddenly overcome by the urge to march into Eric’s apartment and pull him away.

Today Derek was out of the apartment, working, and Illinois had taken his last final and was excited for the break. So one of his friends and his soulmate were over, and Illinois wanted nothing more than to have Eric with them. So he came over and knocked on Eric’s door.

It took a minute or two for Eric to answer, giving Illinois a shy but cautious smile when the door finally opened. “Illy? What are you doing here?”

“Your dad’s not here, do you want to come over and join the party with some of my friends?” Illinois asked.

Eric looked surprised, “Really? You want me over?”

“Of course I do,” Illinois urged. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

The door opened a little more, Eric rubbing at his arm nervously. “I-I uh, I do-n’t know.

“I saw your dad slip out a while ago when I went to go and check my mail,” Illinois lied. He had seen Derek leave, but it had been because he’d been checking every five seconds, driving his friends up the wall.

Eric looked back towards the stairs, biting his bottom lip.

“You can leave anytime you like,” Illinois promised, but hoped in vain that the time would be never.

“O-Okay,” Eric allowed and grabbed a set of keys hanging up near the door to start locking up. Then he started wringing his hands nervously as they started walking down the hall.

“Wa-it,” Eric stopped. “Should I change? I’ve, uh, ne-ever been to . . . a party before.”

“You look fine,” Illinois tried to tell him. “It’ll be great.”

Eric looked down at his feet as Illinois reached his door and began to open it. Instantly his friend Iplier smiled at them.

“Hey, Illy,” Iplier smiled from his spot on the couch, staring at Eric. “Took you long enough.”

“Shut up,” Illinois scoffed, opening the door for Eric who looked nervous, hiding behind him. “Come on in, Eric, we should have more people coming in. Iplier, this is Eric. Eric is this is my friend Iplier.”

“Hey,” Iplier greeted. “So you’re the one Illy’s been talking about.”

Eric blushed, glancing at Illinois before frantically looking away. He began rubbing at his hands and wrist again. “Th-Th-ank you . . . It’s, uh, nice to me-et you.”

“Where’s Host?” Illinois looked around, not seeing Iplier’s soulmate anywhere.

“He’s in the bathroom, he’ll call if he needs help,” Iplier looked.

Eric walked in and Illinois carefully closed the door behind them. Illinois offered him some of the pizza as Host was walking out of the bathroom. Eric stared wide-eyed at the bandages on the Host’s face before averting his eyes. Iplier walked over to him, checking his bandages.

“Host,” Illinois called out. “We have some more company, his name is Eric.”

“Ahh, hello Eric,” the Host turned vaguely towards the sound of Illinois’s voice and Iplier moved so that he could keep checking his face without impeding Host’s movements.

“He’s probably his lion,” Iplier teased.

“Ahh,” Host answered, smiling at Iplier.

“Drop it, Doc,” Illinois warned.

Iplier chuckled to himself, looking up at the Host. “Looks good, I’ll probably need to change these in about a half-hour. Any discomfort or pain?”

“No, Doctor, the Host is fine,” the Host smiled as Iplier’s hand slowly moved up to his face.

Illy rolled his eyes at them, looking over Eric. “So we’ve got pepperoni, and a four meat. Which do you want?”

Eric shrugged, “I do-on’t know.”

Then a heavy pounding came at the door, Illinois glared at it. “Better be one of the guys with their hands full of bullshit.”

Illinois looked through the peephole despite another round of incessant banging.

It was Derek.

“Shit,” Illinois cursed, opening the door enough just to stick his head and shoulder through, hoping that he was completely blocking Eric from view. “What the hell do you want?”

“Where is he?” Derek demanded.

“You’re gonna have to be specific dude,” Illinois sighed, trying to look bored and unimpressed instead of furious and wanting to take his head off.

“My son,” Derek seethed. “I know he came in here, you’ve been spying on us for weeks now.”

Illinois mentally kicked himself, “Don’t know what you mean.”

“Eric!” Derek called. “Get your ass over here.”

There was a little squeak, and Illinois could almost feel Eric standing behind him, clearly trying to move past him but not wanting to forcibly move Illinois out of the way. Illinois wanted to push him back a bit, slam the door in Derek’s face, keeping Eric safe in his apartment.

“Ill,” Eric managed to squeak out. “Uhm . . . Uh, can you, uh—”

His heart breaking in two, Illinois moved to the side and started to open the door a bit.

“Holy shit,” Derek said, looking past Illinois and the instant that Eric was within reach, he grabbed Eric by the wrist and yanked him out of Illinois’s apartment. Eric hit the doorframe with his shoulder, yelping in surprise and pain.

“Hey!” Illinois spat, following them out as Derek was pulling Eric up the hall to their apartment. Eric was clearly trying to regain his foot as he was being tugged along.

“Dad,” Eric whimpered out, “you’re hurting me.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Derek demanded, shoving Eric against the door of their apartment

“Let go of him, he was already walking to you,” Illinois shouted.

“Can it,” Derek spat back at him. “Don’t involve my son in your freaky party. Go find some kind of prostitution instead.”

“Hey, I just invited him over for some pizza and a movie night,” Illinois defended.

“Yeah right, which is why you have two of your friends about to make out in front of your kitchen, bunch of freaks is what they are,” Derek scoffed.

“What?” Illinois seethed, Eric was bad enough. Illinois might have never seen Eric getting hurt, but it was obvious enough. But Iplier and Host were a completely different thing. “Insult me all you want, but you don’t get to attack my friends like that. They’re soulmates, they wanna kiss it’s fine. Not like it’s hurting you.”

“Did you see that freak? No one should be walking around like that, soulmate or not?” Derek looked like he wanted to physically spit in Illinois’s face.

Illinois wasn’t sure he would have stopped himself if he’d been able to think about his next action. He was pretty sure he was punching Derek for all the things. Eric had gone through, just as much as he was for what he was saying about Iplier and Host. But he pulled his fist back and slammed it squarely in Derek’s face.

Derek of course punched him back, which started their fist fight in the middle of the hallway. “You bastard!”

“I’ve been waiting to punch you since I first heard your voice, you asshole!” Illinois snapped back, it was all he could manage before his mind descended into a fit of rage. His mind had grabbed the first of many insults he’d thought of, one of thousands. One for every tear he’d caught Eric trying to stifle, every time Eric had flinched when Illinois stretched wrong.

Derek went to punch him in the stomach, making Illinois instinctively dodge the blow. Unfortunately he dodged the wrong way as Eric moved and Derek hit his son square in the stomach, knocking him to his knees.

Illinois looked over at Eric, distracted by the squeak of fear and pain that Derek got another shot on him. Not that Illinois cared much about getting punched in the stomach when Eric was clearly a much weaker and squishier target.

Kicking Derek in the shins bought him some time and more than a little bit of satisfaction. He turned over to Eric, trying to figure out how bad the hit had been.

“Are you hurt?” Illinois demanded, trying to look Eric over.

“He’s just being a baby,” Derek scoffed, standing up. “Eric, get up before you embarrass yourself even more.”

Illinois felt rage take him over. “You hit him in the stomach.”

“Not that hard,” Derek dismissed, and Illinois felt the urge to punch him again. “Sides, why do you care?”

Maybe it was the white hot fury that had taken over him. That Eric had been hit one too many times, had his lovely face marred too much. But Illinois held up the back of his hand, “He’s my soulmate, and you’re not going to touch him again.”

Eric and Derek both went silent, Eric flinched, just staring up at Illinois in shock. But Derek, after recovering from his shock, laughed; and Illinois felt himself getting somehow even angrier.

“You’re shitting me,” Derek laughed, pointing at the mark, “There is no way that’s Eric. Merck maybe, but you’d have a black mark if it was.”

“Then maybe you don’t know him at all,” Illinois snarled, wanting to punch Derek again.

“Right,” Derek snarled at him. “You listen well, you come anywhere near me or my sons again and I’ll finish what I—”

Derek suddenly went pale, and Illinois looked over his shoulder to see Host staring into Derek’s direction. In one of his hands was one of Illinois’s many steak knives, touching just the tip delicately to the palm of his hand. He was just looking over at them. The threat was clear.

“The Host thinks that Derek should leave while he still has the chance,” the Host said, finally glancing towards his hands.

“Creep,” Derek muttered, and turned, grabbing Eric by the arm to start dragging him towards their apartment. “Let’s go.”

“Let go of him!” Illinois ordered.

“Don’t tell me how to treat my own child,” Derek snarled. He roughly grabbed Eric by the arm. Illinois took a step forward before Eric finally spoke.

“I’ll be o-o-kay,” Eric stammered, clearly terrified. “G-G home.”

Illinois felt frozen in place, desperately wanting to help, and not knowing how to. That time was all Derek needed to angrily drag Eric inside the apartment, and when Illinois got the door. He heard a faint click of the lock. After a couple furious seconds and kicking the door, Illinois did go back to his apartment.

Host was still at the door, still playing around with a knife.

“How’d you know where he was, and who gave you this?” Illinois tried to laugh as he gently took the knife out of Host’s hands.

“Iplier did,” the Host smiled.

“Should we call the cops?” Iplier asked, looking down the hall.

“If I don’t see him tomorrow, yes,” Illinois agreed. “Hell only knows what’s going on in there.”

The three of them went back inside, Illinois kept his door unlocked, checking every once in a while to see if Eric was back outside. A couple more people came over, staying for a couple hours before leaving again, offering for Illinois to come out with them. Illinois refused. He was too worried, terrified of what was going on in the Derekson apartment.

Iplier and Host left his apartment sometime around one, Host getting too exhausted to stay up. Which just left Eric. Illinois was too jittery to sleep and was glad that tomorrow was the start of the break or else he didn’t know how he was going to get through the next day if it was a school day. Illinois was making himself a coffee when a soft knock came at the door. It was so faint, Illinois thought he’d just imagined it, but went to check on it anyways.

Illinois opened the door without checking, and his stomach dropped he recognized Eric. The guy was standing there, crying, a massive bruise in the shape of a large hand print that was forming on the side of his face along with a couple other bruises, and Illinois’s heart just about snapped in two. “I-I . . .” Eric looked away. “He . . .”

Illinois was immediately pushing his door open, gesturing for Eric to come inside. The relief in Eric’s tear stained face made Illinois want to storm over to Eric’s apartment and kick the door in to have round three with Derek.

“Yeah, of course,” Illinois finally managed when Eric was already halfway inside, “you’re always welcome.”

He did close the door behind Eric, trying to be careful of his movement.

“Are your fr-friends . . . still here?” Eric tried to force out.

“No, they had to leave early,” Illinois said. “Do you need me to call Iplier? He’s a doctor and he can—”

“No!” Eric called out desperately.

Illinois flinched.

Eric slapped his hand over his face and started crying, dropping to the ground as he began to sob, as if the outburst had been enough to completely knock him sideways.

Rushing over, Illinois wasn’t sure what to do and was surprised when Eric leaned towards him, crying into his chest.

“Eric,” Illinois sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“H-He kicked me out,” Eric sobbed brokenly. “Wh-Where am I su-pposed to go?”

__ _ Good riddance! _ Illinois, but had the good sense not to say it out loud, and certainly not to shout it.

“Your dad’s a piece of shit,” Illinois told him. “Stay here.”

“I d-don’t have a-a job,” Eric mumbled, looking down. “I can’t ge-get one c-cause of—”

Eric trailed off, looking down at his legs, suddenly cowed.

Illinois shrugged, “I’m not letting you go out there to fend for yourself. Stay here, there’s more than enough room.”

The timid man looked unsure, rubbing at his covered wrist.

“I don’t just want you here because you’re my soulmate,” Illinois smiled. “I want you here because you’re a good person who got kicked out of his home by his dumbass dad and you didn’t deserve it.”

Eric looked even more unsure, fully staring at his wrist.

“Can I see?” Illinois asked.

It took Eric a long time to move or say anything, but eventually he tugged the band free and Illinois saw what looked like a whip curled around Eric’s wrist. Illinois carefully and gently took it and traced it in his hands.

“I like the one you gave me,” Illinois held up the back of his hand.

“Th-That’s not li-ke me,” Eric commented miserably.

“Nah,” Illinois smiled. “You’re plenty brave. You did all kinds of stuff for me the last couple of weeks.”

Eric blushed, looking away again, this time with a little less fear in his eyes.

“Here,” Illinois gently pulled Eric up to stand, slowly moving his soulmate up. “Let me help you with those shiners on that very pretty face of yours, and then we can watch a movie. Iplier and Host left a lot of leftover pizza.”

Eric eyed the pizzas cautiously, clearly interested but nervous at the same time. “Th-ey wouldn’t mind?”

“Not if they want to have a movie night at my place again,” Illinois dismissed. Eric managed a very small smile as Illinois led him to the counter and let him choose a pizza. As Eric was eating, Illinois broke out his first aid kit and began dabbing at the bruises on his face with some antibacterial cream.

Eric fell asleep during the first movie they watched, curled up against Illinois’s side as Illy just looked down and watched him sleep.

Illinois decided as Eric began snoring lightly next to him, that Eric was everything that Illinois’s mark said he was. It took guts to try and stand up to his dad in the little ways he had, to still be so kind and caring as the world was trying to grind him down, and to come to Illinois’s apartment instead of going back and begging his dad to let him back in. 

Eric was plenty brave, and Illinois was sure his little lion was too good for this world. But Illinois would have to save his revenge on Derek for another moment. He had Eric safe, and that would have to be enough. Enough for both of them.


End file.
